Recycle What happens to your kerbside recycling?

All of the recyclable materials collected from your kerbside bin are currently sent to and sorted at Casepak, a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Leicester.

The exception is North West Leicestershire District Council, which works a little differently – if you’re a North West Leicestershire resident, you can check what happens to your recycling here.

Once at the MRF, your recyclables are separated using a combination of hand-sorting and state of the art machinery, before being baled for sending to various companies for reprocessing. You can find out more about Casepak and their sorting facility here.

The statutory requirements for MRFs in England include regular audits by the Environment Agency (EA), which also carries out random checks at the docks before containers are exported and a strict audit trail which allows the EA to track back the containers at the dock to the facility that has filled them.  The paperwork accompanying the load must specify the origin of the material (e.g. the MRF), the broker who has arranged the shipment, details of the facility receiving the container and a confirmation that the producer and receiving facility have a written contract in place.

This evidence is used by the Environment Agency to ensure all materials are exported to appropriately licensed facilities and that the agreed material quality standards are met. MRF operators are required to maintain these records to evidence the movement of material they are handling and ensure they comply with European and UK rules governing how waste is shipped into or out of the country.

The county council is obligated to report the end destinations for all collected materials on a quarterly basis to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The final destinations for any materials sorted by Casepak and sent for reprocessing in the UK are reported. For materials exported outside the UK, the county council is legally required to report the last facility in the UK where the material was treated, and the council also reports final destinations where we have that information.

The tonnages and end destinations details can be found on WasteDataFlow, an online waste data reporting system accessible to the public.

Recyclable material is an extremely valuable resource and a competitive marketplace operates worldwide, with different sectors sourcing and purchasing material for a range of reprocessing options.

Casepak receive items for recycling from Blaby District Council, Charnwood Borough Council, Harborough District Council, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, Oadby & Wigston Borough Council and Melton Borough Council.

The table below gives examples of what your recyclables are turned into and details material end destinations for January 2024.

Material Stream End Products and End Destinations*

 

Material stream Comprising Likely end product End destination for

January 2024

Mixed papers Office white, envelopes, wrapping paper, phone directories, junk mail & drinks cartons (tetra-paks) Newspapers & Magazines Paper packaging India/France
Cardboard Corrugated boxes, brown card, coloured card Cardboard/brown paper packaging Turkey/Malaysia
Glass – 0 -50mm Mixed coloured drink bottles, drink glass & glass food containers Re-melt for new glass products UK
Steel Drink cans & food tins General steel products India/UK
Aluminium Cans, aerosols & aluminium foil Aluminium Ingots Thailand
PET Bottles and Trays Clear plastic bottles Plastics pellets for new PET bottles and some clothing UK/France/Netherlands/Spain
HDPE Natural Milk bottles New HDPE bottles and film.
Mixed Plastics Plastics pots, trays and coloured bottles of PVC, PP and PS grades Variety of plastic products including film, insulation materials and clothing. UK/Netherlands
LDPE/Mixed Films Low density polyethylene/mixed colour plastic bags Plastic film UK
Post-sort Residue Non-recyclable material Solid Recovered Fuels UK

 

*Please note that not all districts collect all materials listed.

 

Waste and Recycling Figures 2022/23

The table below shows Leicestershire County Council (LCC), District and Borough Council’s current recycling and waste figures.  The figures are for the year 2022/23 and are updated annually.

Note: The following data is verified by the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) at the end of each year. The figures for 2023/24 will be published in 2025 once the figures have been audited by DEFRA.

 

2022 /23 figures

 

LCC Blaby Charnwood Harborough Hinckley and Bosworth Melton NWLDC Oadby and Wigston
Percentage of Household waste sent for Reuse, Recycling or Composting 41.8%* 40.6% 41.5% 43.6% 41.2% 42.9% 43% 39.5%
Dry recycling rate ** 23.3% 23.19% 25.02% 24.98% 22.04% 24.09% 19.63% 25.2%
Composting rate 18.29% 17.32% 16.4% 18.22% 18.91% 18.59% 23.42% 14.28%
Overall household waste collected (tonnes) *** 291,504.24 34,459.39 58,662.71 35,849.7 42,851.4 20,502.35 39,211.1 17,046.56
Residual household waste collected per household (Kg/household) 546.72**** 462.37 442.51 474.15 491.29 490.74 473.03 433.05
Household waste sent to landfill 20.98%

(61,166.08 tonnes)

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Household waste sent for energy recovery 32.89%

(95,875.62 tonnes)

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

 

*Includes all kerbside and Recycling and Household Waste Site (RHWS) waste.

**Dry recycling includes household items accepted for recycling.

***Overall household waste (tonnes) also includes street sweepings, bulky waste and street litter.

**** The figure for LCC is inclusive of district / borough council and RHWS tonnage.